Wednesday, April 21, 2010

killing babies

one of the most difficult aspects of writing, at least for me, in the parlance of somerset maugham, is the prospect of killing a baby - ie, deleting a cherished piece of writing, whether it be a chapter, a paragraph, a sentence, or maybe even a character.

just before i got sick, it had occured to me that the structure that i'd settled on for my current work in progress wasn't working. i saw what i had to do, but i didn't want to do it.

this morning i bit the bullet, created a new file, cut and copied and pasted the salvagable parts and started fresh. But interestingly enough, not before i was forced to do battle with an enormous brown recluse spider who seemed to have decided that the laundry basket in the new laundry room was a perfect place to make a nest.

as a dear friend pointed out, Spider Medicine is Writer Medicine.

and furthermore, the war will end. blessed be.

4 comments:

Stacy Uncorked said...

Sometimes cut/paste/delete is a necessary evil in order to rejuvenate the thought process and get that creative flow back. Here's hoping it did the trick for you!

Speaking of necessary evils - brown recluse? *shudder!* Those scare me...and they're just evil, not 'necessary' evil. ;)

rose AKA Walk in the Woods - she/her said...

Spider is a manifestation of Creator. Merry creating!

Kathy said...

I hope things are going well. I like spiders although I prefer them to stay outside. And a brown recluse is not a really good pet...

Kim said...

In school I had a proffesor who refered to it as murdering your darling. I'm sure your work will be all the better for it.